Rose Byrne: making noise with quiet inner turmoil

Rose Byrne is Australia's answer to Audrey Hepburn--with a darker edge. Full of gamine charm, a sharp, elusive conversationalist with passions for P.J. Harvey and the French philosopher Michel Foucault, the actress has, she explains, "a natural, innate quality to perform."

The 21-year-old first made her mark in The Goddess of 1967, a road movie that played like an off-kilter poem. As a blind girl with strange, childish edges, Byrne won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Venice Film Festival, and, soon thereafter, the attention of George Lucas, who cast her as the handmaiden Dorme in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. Meeting Lucas was "pretty nerve-wracking," Byrne confesses. "He's such an iconic figure." Of her part, she jokes, "I mostly stand behind Natalie Portman looking supportive."

Lengthier roles are imminent, as Byrne costars in Matt Dillon's directorial debut City of Ghosts, with James Caan, and a British period piece called I Capture The Castle--both scheduled for U.S. release later this year.

As the stakes increase, the actress stays focused with periodic reality checks. "I ask myself," Byrne explains, '"Am I having fun? Am I getting better at it?' But," she adds, "I think it's important to keep a little chaos inside you."

Mark Mordue is a Sydney-based writer.

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